Discipline:

by Naseer Ahmad Faruqui

The Light (July 8, 1978)

Indiscipline is the bane of our
lives today. Like a canker or cancer, it is eating into
the vitals of our society. Lest this statement should be
considered an exaggeration:

a. Ask the parents,
and most of them will tell you that their children no
longer listen to them, nor submit to any
discipline.

b. Ask the
schoolteachers, and they will tell you the same
sad tale.

c. Ask the college
professors, and you will find that by that time
indiscipline has grown worse.

d. Ask the husbands,
and they will complain that their wives do not listen to
them nor yield an inch on most issues of difference of
opinion, if they can help it.

e. Ask the employers,
and they will be unanimous that todays labourers or
employees usually take the law into their own hands and
do not take any notice of even the Union bosses unless
they dance to their tunes.

f. Had anybody ever heard of
police strikes until recently?

g. And if you ask the
police, they will tell you that the people at
large sadly lack discipline. For instance, the traffic
police will tell you how the pedestrians will cross the
road at any place they like even though a zebra crossing
is nearby. The motorists will park under the "No Parking"
sign or rush through traffic lights even if they are
against them or break speed restrictions — in fact all
laws if they can help it.

And so on.

Army
Discipline:

The defence forces are rightly
known for their discipline. But how is that achieved?
Through years of hard training in which all ranks are put
through the severest possible drills and training; so they
learn to obey orders whatever the cost. In other words, each
soldier or member of the defence forces learns to
subordinate his will, his comfort and even his life to the
orders of the superiors. However, that is only on the parade
ground, on duty or in the battlefield. The Muslim soldiery
has a unique record of discipline at all times (the reason
for which will be discussed later). But other soldiers are
known to get completely out of control in moments of
conquest when they behave like animals let loose.

The Animal
Within:

That brings me to the crux
of the problem. Man is an animal so far as his body is
concerned. It is because our physique is basically common
with the animals, difference in finish notwithstanding, that
chemists and doctors try out medicines on the animals first
and then adapt them to the human beings. The Great Creator
has Himself drawn attention to it in more than one place in
the Holy Quran. To quote one verse:

"And there is not an animal
in the earth nor a bird that flies on its two wings, but
(they are) communities like yourselves" (6:38).

Mans superiority over the
animal world lies in the spirit blown into him by Allah.
Addressing the angels at the time of mans creation,
Allah says:

"So when I have made him
complete and breathed into him of My spirit, fall down
making obeisance to him." (15:29, 38:72).

More of this obeisance
later.

The Holy Quran reveals another secret
of mans inner self. The animal within man provides the
motive power for human activity. But like all other motive
powers (such as in a motor car, railway engine or aeroplane)
it has to be controlled and steered or else man ends up in
disaster. And the devil drives the animal within man by
inciting the animal desires and passions in him. Thus man
will appear before his Creator accompanied by the angel who
will be a witness to what the man did, and by the devil who
drove the animal within him. Says the Holy Quran:

"And every soul will come,
with it the driver and the witness" (50:21).

Divine
Warning:

The parable of Adam and
Eve, according to the Holy Quran, is the story of each man
and woman:

"O children of Adam, let not
the devil seduce you as he expelled your parents from the
garden (i.e. a state of innocent bliss)" (7:27).

In addition, in the parable of Adam
and Eve, as narrated in the Holy Quran, Allah has made it
clear that while the angles are submissive to man, the
devil is not:

"And when We said to the
angels, Be submissive to Adam, they submitted but the
devil (did not). He refused and was proud" (2:34).

And the devil, true to his nature,
urges man also to be insubordinate to his
Creator.

Allah has fixed the limits up to
which mans animal desires can be satisfied without
violating moral and spiritual values. For instance, man
should take his food lawfully, not like the animal which
takes whatever it fancies whether it rightfully belongs to
it or not. Similarly, man can marry but not indulge in
extra-marital relations, and so on. And these limits are
ingrained in human nature. That is why man resents if, for
instance, another man wishes to commit adultery with his
daughter instead of marrying her; or if a person cheats or
steals from him. Human reason also confirms what is right or
wrong. For instance, nobody will say that cheating or
stealing is right. But this Divine guidance placed in
mans nature and reason was not enough to save Adam and
Eve from being beguiled by the devil. And it is not enough
even to the present-day man or woman who is in many cases
blinded by the animal desires and passions incited by the
devil to exceed the limits laid down by the Creator in
mans nature and reason.

Revelation:

As the Divine guidance laid
down in mans nature and reason was not enough to save
him from the seduction of the devil, Allah in His
infinite mercy provided external guidance in black and white
through revelation. Says the Holy Quran:

"Then Adam received
(revealed) words from his Lord, and He turned to him
(mercifully). Surely He is Oft-returning (to mercy), the
Merciful"(2:37).

Mankind was told generally:

"Surely there will come to
you a guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance,
no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they
grieve"(2:38).

Fear precedes an evil: grief
follows upon it. The men and women to whom "no fear
shall come, nor shall they grieve" enter the inner garden of
heavenly bliss in this very life.

Discipline:

Let us revert to the question
I posed in the beginning. Why is there such widespread
indiscipline in the world today? And why has the
unparalleled advance made by man in the fields of education,
science, technology, material welfare, etc., failed to
induce discipline in him? It is because while man has
conquered the world without him, he has not conquered the
world within him. If a person does not submit to Divine
guidance, he naturally follow his hearts desires and
passions, which are animal desires and passions incited by
the devil — as stated above. And the devils nature
being to disobey because he is proud, he induces the same
state of mind in each man and woman. He incites their pride
to make them say: "We dont want any guidance. Why
should anybody tell us what to do?" And thus they ignore or
reject Divine discipline to begin with, and then even the
human disciplines.

Has this defiance ever made anybody
happy? It has not. For man is not really an animal,
because of the spark of Divine spirit blown into him which
rankles in his heart if he goes wrong. That is why
mankind, in spite of its material advancement, is unhappy
and is in search of peace of mind. The spark of the
Divine sprit in man is not satisfied with anything less than
Divine guidance. In any case, without it, Adam and Eve went
astray, as does the modern man or woman who is not guided by
Divine guidance. The Merciful Providence, therefore, sent
down Divine guidance from time to time in all nations
according to their requirements and the needs of the times.
That is the unique teaching of the Holy Quran which
recognises the Divine origin and the initial truth of all
religions. But what happened was that the Divine guidance
thus sent was lost, or it became corrupted, because the
revealed books which contained that guidance were never
reduced to writing when revealed. They or their translations
were written down centuries afterwards. No wonder that the
revelation which was not reduced to writing got lost in oral
transmission or translation or through interpolations at the
hands of unscrupulous religious persons who wanted to impose
their viewpoint on others. Scholars of comparative
religions now admit the loss or corruption of all revealed
books, except the Holy Quran. The Holy Quran
is:

a. The only revealed book
to be reduced to writing as and when it was
revealed.

b. The only revealed book
to claim that it contains complete Divine
guidance;

c. The only revealed book
to claim that it is meant for the guidance of all
nations; and

d. The only revealed book
to claim that it has preserved such contents of the
previous revealed teachings as were worth
preserving.

Faith and
Deeds:

The clear insight given by
Islam into the working of the inner forces in man goes a
long way to help him to steer clear of the shoals and
dangerous rocks which have brought many sailors to grief.
The secrets of self are not the only secrets thrown open by
the Holy Quran. It has revealed the Great Unseen, namely,
Allah in a way that appeals to human heart and reason. That
way alone can true faith be born. And true faith alone can
lead to good deeds. The Allah of the Holy Quran is not an
idol confined in a temple or at the most a human being like
ourselves raised to godhead by his followers after his
death, as in almost all major religions like Hinduism,
Buddhism and Christianity. The only concept of God that can
inspire human beings is that of the Mighty Creator of the
whole universe, of life and death, and of the Hereafter in
which He will be the Master of the Day of Judgement. He is
the Beneficent and the Merciful Rabb or Fosterer unto
perfection of His wonderful creation, and so on. That is the
beautiful and sublime concept of God presented by the Holy
Quran.

Modern science has found
that:

a. The whole universe is made
of uniform material.

b. The whole universe obeys
the same laws.

c. What is more, the
universe cannot exist except "in a Universal
Mind."

The discoveries at (a) and (b) above
led even atheistic scientists to admit that the
universe has a Creator and He is One. Where do you get the
most perfect and the purest concept of monotheism except in
Islam?

The discovery stated at (c) above, is
again in confirmation of the truth revealed in the Holy
Quran 1,400 years ago that Allah is Qayoom, i.e., He
Who exists by Himself, and by Whom all His creation exists.
In fact, He is the Rabb, i.e., the Fosterer unto perfection
of all His creation. Therefore, He is constantly in command
and control of His creation, and constantly associated with
it. To carry out His great task, He is Omnipresent,
Ever-seeing, Ever-hearing and Aware of even the innermost
secrets of mans nature and heart with which He has
direct links. As modern science says, this universe exists
because it exists in the Universal Mind. So that Allah is
constantly mindful of all His creation, of even the smallest
atom and whatever it contains, of even the human heart with
which He has communication by inspiration or
revelation.

It is this faith in God, revealed
in the Holy Quran 1,400 years ago, and confirmed by science
now, which inspires man to do good deeds and to shun
evil or that which is wrong even if there is no policeman or
magistrate watching him. The practices prescribed by the
Holy Quran reinforce this faith all the time. For
instance, the Muslim prayer five times a day reminds man
that Allah is with him wherever he may be (that is why
the prayer can be said anywhere without an idol, a cross or
any sign before one); that Allah is watching him (that is
why one folds ones hands, bends and prostrates in the
Muslim prayer); that Allah hears what we say (that is why
part of the prayer is said aloud) and that Allah knows the
secrets of ones heart (that is why the major portion
of the prayer is said in ones heart). Similarly
fasting induces the same faith because a Muslim goes
without food, drink or sex during the fast even if no one is
watching him. Similarly, fasting and other sacrifices
required in performing the Muslim religious practices curb
the animal desires and passions so as to make them
subordinate to the moral and spiritual values expected of
Allahs "vicegerent on earth", which is man according
to the Holy Quran (2:30).

Self
Discipline:

It is the living faith in a
living God inspired by Islam and its religious practices,
and it is the curbing of the animal within man taught by
them, that lead to self-control and self-discipline. A
man who has acquired these, does not need a watching
policeman to obey the disciplines. The Holy Quran makes
an appeal which appeals to reason and good sense:

"Co-operate with one another
in doing good or the avoidance of evil. And do not
co-operate with one another in sin or aggression"
(5:2).

Now, all Divine commandments or
man-made laws fit into one or more than one of the
categories mentioned above. This is made clearer when the
Holy Quran says:

"Obey Allah and the Messenger
and those in authority from among you" (4:59).

There is a possibility that those
in authority may be wrong. If so, the Holy Quran
requires a reference back to Allah and the Holy Prophet
[pbuh] (i.e., Quran and Hadith). If they do not
overrule "those in authority from among you," then the
latter have to be obeyed. Similarly, obedience to the
parents is prescribed in the Holy Quran more than once,
for they are the best well-wishers of their children for
whom they make lifelong sacrifices of their earnings, their
time and their own comfort, even to the extent of
sacrificing their lives when the need arises; besides they
know better, because of their experience and maturity, than
the raw and impulsive children in whom the animal urges
preponderate. Obedience to the parents, when the
childs nature is pliant and mouldable lays the
foundation of obedience to those in authority (i.e., all
manmade laws) and obedience to Allah. And the last-named
induces discipline from within as opposed to discipline from
without sought to be imposed by modern society.
Self-discipline is real discipline. The artificial
discipline sought to be super-imposed upon a rebellious
animal within man cannot last long.